Archive for the tag “WIAW”

I’m officially back from Disney World and back into real life (wah.) BUT I have lots and lots of yummy Disney treats to share with you now! (YAY!)

I ate a LOT while I was in WDW, so I’m starting off with the best of all: Disney sweets and treats.

I’m not even going to pretend that I ate healthily while on vacation. I did at times (you’ll see that later), but for the most part I enjoyed myself, right down to the very food I ate. This is pretty evident when you realize that I have about a dozen pictures just of sweets and snacks. And I didn’t even photograph nearly everything I ate, just some of the highlights. (Also, there were times, like when I went to afternoon tea at the Grand Floridian’s Garden Tea Room, that I didn’t feel it was appropriate to keep snapping photo after photo–but don’t worry, it does make an appearance below!)

So, without any further ado, I give you WIAW: Disney Sweets and Treats…

1-Dark-chocolate covered caramel with sea salt from Karamell-Küche in Epcot’s Germany pavilion. See the size of that thing? That’s ALL caramel, covered with *just* enough chocolate. Even I, with my mountain of a sweet tooth, could barely finish the thing!2-Red velvet cupcake from Contempo Cafe in the Contemporary Resort. This cupcake was recommended to me almost as soon as I walked in the door–how could I say no? But I know what you’re thinking: “Gee, that looks an awful lot like buttercream frosting. But Alex, being the huge red velvet fan you are, you must know you need cream cheese frosting!” Totally agree. Good thing it’s filled with it. 😉 Yup. Heavenly. I ate the whole damn thing.3-The classic, the quintessential Dole Whip float. So famous that this was my first one ever. Pineapple soft-serve with pineapple juice. Super refreshing!4-Carrot cake cookie sandwich (two large carrot cake rounds filled with cream cheese frosting) and coffee in Hollywood Studios. Breakfast of champions.

1-Coffee ice cream in a sprinkle- and chocolate-dipped homemade waffle cone from Ghiradelli’s in Downtown Disney. Awesome bus-riding snack!2-School bread from Epcot’s Norway pavilion: a savory-sweet bread filled with sweet custard and topped with icing and coconut. I didn’t love it as much as I’d hoped, unfortunately.3-Told you afternoon tea would make an appearance. This wasn’t even my dessert, it was Kevin’s, but it was too pretty not to share: pastry filled with vanilla bean mousse…in the shape of a swan! Adorable 🙂4-And of course, a classic: the Mickey Premium Bar! Your basic vanilla ice cream-dark chocolate shell combo, but the mouse makes it special! He’s posing in front of another classic fave: Space Mountain!

1-Venturing into the treat, away from the sweet momentarily. Chips with chipotle salsa and queso dip from La Cava de Tequila in Epcot’s Mexico pavilion. Salty, cheesy, spicy–YUM!2-What’s a tequila bar without some margaritas?! Aguacate Margarita (Avocado Margarita.) Oddly, tasted banana-y, which was a little weird. Don’t worry, there was extensive menu to taste from! 😉3-Back to the sweet (cause it’s me): Maple Crème Brûlée from Le Cellier in Epcot’s Canada pavilion. I had this the last time I was in Disney–2 years ago–and have been thinking about it ever since. Hands down the best crème brûlée I’ve everhad.4-More frozen treats–frozen banana covered in chocolate and peanuts. I had two of these, they were that good. And SO simple–I’m totally making these at home. Also the breakfast of champions.

So, this is the last week of Jen’s awesome WIAW theme of “Summer Staples.” Does Disney food count as a summer staple? I sure think so!

Well, there ya have it, folks. Installment 1 of what I ate in Walt Disney World. Are you drooling yet? If not, no worries–there’s more where that came from!

Phew! It’s been a very writing-intensive couple of days for me. Between banking articles for work and banking posts for the blog while I’m on vacation, my fingers have been getting quite the typing workout!

So thank goodness What I Ate Wednesday is photo-diary format! (Not that I WON’T write cause, hey, I’m a writer, but at least I get a little bit of a break!)

I will let you know, though: these are technically weekend eats from two weekends ago, not this past weekend. I got so busy last week (Wednesday in particular) with vacation errands, work and details (like making centerpieces) for my dad’s wedding that I didn’t get a chance to post my summer weekend eats, so I’m sharing them with you all this week!

Saturday:

Breakfast: McCann’s Irish oatmeal with a teaspoonful of strawberry Chobani and a chopped peach, topped with ground cinnamon and ginger. Mmmm. It was actually kind of a late breakfast, and I ate while watching this really cool guy place second in his prelim heat with Nikki. She was significantly less interested than I was.

[side note]: Is everyone else as sad as I am that the Olympics are over??

Lunch/snack: A cut-up mango and the rest of the strawberry Chobani from breakfast.

Dinner: This one’s got a little bit of story. Kevin and I had decided to cook a good dinner that night, since we were both off and had the time. Then, about 10 minutes after I watched Pistorius race, my power went out for, like, 4-5 hours. So that sort of killed the cooking dinner plan–neither of us wanted to cook in a place with no AC, plus it’s much harder to ignite the stove and we were trying to keep the fridge closed as much as possible. So we decided to go out to dinner.

A few days earlier, I had been cleaning out my room and came across an Olive Garden gift card I got for Christmas. It seemed like a good a time as any to use it.

Is Olive Garden the pinnacle of Italian cuisine? Not in the least. Is it particularly healthy? Not really. Is it fairly quick and cheap and relatively tasty? Yup, especially with a gift card.

So, to Olive Garden we went. We split salad, bread sticks and bruschetta and then I got the shrimp mezzaluna: sautéed shrimp with half-moon shaped cheese ravioli. What you see above are the leftovers, since I didn’t take pictures in the restaurant. And you know what? It was actually pretty good. (I’m soooo gonna get flamed for that.)

Sunday:

Breakfast: Blueberry Chobani with the last of my Bear Naked Fit Triple Berry Crunch granola and a Rook iced coffee at my desk. (Yeah, sometimes I have to work weekends…the life of a Web admin.)

Lunch: Vanilla ice cream at the beach. Seriously. I popped over to the boardwalk after work (I know you’re jealous, it’s ok). I planned on stopping at this Korean taco stand that opened there this summer and is supposed to be really tasty, but it was 90 bajillion degrees and there was a “new” ice cream shop. I say “new” because it was really just a new location for a shop the next town down the boardwalk that’s pretty famous for its ice cream. So of course I had to stop in. And I was feeling like some simple, good, pure ice cream, so I got vanilla, which is pretty uncharacteristic for me. (My usual orders typically involve cookie dough, gummy bears and/or chocolate.) And it was damn tasty ice cream.

I felt really sick from the stuff a few hours later, so it doesn’t deserve a picture. (I sometimes react negatively to large amounts of MSG.)

Well, that’s it! I’m focusing my energy on vacation now, because when I leave my office in the next five minutes, I’m officially on vacation! And I’m going to DISNEY WORLD tomorrow! I’m entirely too excited.

OH…before I go–Happy 100th birthday to the one and only Julia Child! Bon apetit!

Clearly it’s been a while since I’ve had a What I Ate Wednesday post, but that doesn’t mean I haven’t been keeping tabs on some fun finds! As always, thanks to Jen from Peas and Crayons for hosting.

During the rehearsal process for the show that kept me away from the blog, we had some hours-long days in the theater. Since I wasn’t really able to keep food cold and didn’t have a ton of time to sit down and eat, I had to rely on healthy, quick, nourishing snacks to get me by. Outside of rehearsal, I had very little free time, so I was also on the lookout for convenient grab-and-go foods and meals.

I used to keep a stash of frozen Lean Cuisines and the like at work, but I’ve been making a serious effort to cut artificial preservatives and sweeteners out of my life as much as possible. I’ve switched from Splenda to raw sugar in my coffee, switched to organic yogurt and Greek yogurt from Light n Fit, and have stopped buying Lean Cuisines. However, that doesn’t mean I have the time to always make everything from scratch, as much as I’d love to. So you can imagine my excitement when I found these in the freezer aisle at ShopRite:

No artificial preservatives and relatively low sodium for a packaged food. And ingredients I can recognize and pronounce! And even with sour cream as an ingredient, the whole (large) burrito still clocks in at under 500 calories! I used to buy a brand called Evol burrito, but the nutrition facts just didn’t stack up against Red’s, and the ingredient list was definitely longer and less recognizable.

The best part? It actually tastes good!

I also bought a vegetarian rice and beans version, but it lacked flavor compared to the chicken. As wrong as it may be to say, it tasted like it needed salt. Yes, I realize the contradiction–I love that the sodium is (relatively) low, and yet I complain about a lack of salt. But I guess we know how they kept it so low. It still had a spicy kick, but was missing the flavor punch it needed to round it out. But I’ll definitely buy the chicken again for those days I have no time to make lunch (or dinner.)

Now, on to snacktime! (What everyone’s really waiting for!)

I know June was technically WIAW’s “healthy snacking” month, but I missed a month, so I’m backtracking and making up for lost time. (That’s okay, right? I’m saying it is.)

This time around I found healthy snacks in an unusual place–TJ Maxx! I was on line to buy shoes and, while waiting, discovered shelves of unique and nutritious snacks. There were a lot of things to choose from, from chocolates to falafel chips, but I settled on two fun finds: dry roasted edamame and mango Chimes. I love regular steamed edamame, so I was intrigued to try it in dry, crunchy form–like soybean chips! In all honesty, they’re just okay. I can eat a small handful or two but then it gets to be too much. They’re great for an energy boost, though. As easy to eat as a bag of Goldfish crackers but packed with protein!

The mango Chimes, on the other hand, were a great find. They’re small, individually-wrapped (yay!) mango-flavored ginger chews. At first, they’re sweet and candy-like with a gummy candy chewiness (which I love–like ginger gummy bears!). But after a bit, the spicy ginger kicks you in the palate. And it’s INTENSE! I’ve learned to take a few small bites instead of just popping the whole thing in my mouth. I love all things ginger, though, so this is like a gingery, fruity, guilt-free(ish) gummy candy. Awesome.

A few other snack creations: a caramel popcorn cake topped with natural peanut butter and crushed peanuts for crunch–sweet, creamy, crunchy, salty. And again, protein!

I’ve also been trying to make my own salad dressing when I can. It’s even better when I can enjoy it with seasonal produce (like fresh raw green beans and homemade Italian vinaigrette.)

Also, I’ve been pretty much OBSESSED with this lately, especially the lime and raspberry lime flavors:

Okay, sometimes I drink the orange, too. You know, when I have to. But this stuff is great! It’s so refreshing, with just a hint of natural flavor. I’m bad about drinking enough water, and this definitely gets me to drink more! Carbonated and fruity, it’s a hydrating, sugar- and calorie-free alternative to soda. (And all natural–no artificial sweeteners or anything.) Costco sells it by the case and I’ve been drinking it like, well, water.

And now? I was just noshing on some cottage cheese with this mixed in:

Never heard of cranberry apple butter? What? You don’t know what you’re missing. This isn’t actually butter at all, but rather a smooth cranberry fruit spread. (If you’ve ever had apple butter, think of that.) I bought it at Trader Joe’s a while back, so I don’t know if they still carry it or if it’s seasonal. Either way, if you see it, buy it! It’s super tart and tangy and is totally versatile. It goes great on toast, with or without peanut butter; in oatmeal; with cheese (especially brie or gorgonzola) and even on pork! Not a cranberry fan? Can’t find it? No problem, grab the mango one instead. You can thank me later.

I mixed it into some cottage cheese with raisins. I was going to post a picture until I realized how unappetizing light pink cottage cheese actually looks. But it tastes good! A few handfuls of almonds and a spoonful of Nutella rounded out my “dinner.” I wish I could say I ate this light and healthy all the time, but today in particular it’s because I’m going out for pizza and beer in a little while. Oh well, no one’s perfect (and it’s totally worth it!)

I’ve neglected What I Ate Wednesdays for the past couple of weeks, but now I’m back–with a recipe! Once again, thanks to Jen from Peas & Crayons for hosting!

So, obviously Monday was Memorial Day. And originally, I was hoping to have a party or a small cookout or something. But my lack of planning coupled with my friends’ work schedules meant that wasn’t going to happen this year. But I still wanted to do something fun and summery to end the long weekend. Kevin got off work at six on Monday night, so I decided to throw together a fun, light, healthy Memorial Day picnic!

I know, I’m freaking adorable. This meal was a mix of home-cooked and store-bought, which is my kind of combo. We started with homemade bruschetta and crostinis (check out my recipe for that here). Still on my pesto kick from the day before, I also whipped up a big batch of pesto pasta salad! (Recipe to follow.) It’s a great way to use fresh pesto and it lightens up an otherwise mayo-laden picnic staple. Personally, I prefer the basil-y freshness to gloppy mayonnaise.

I bought some prepared chicken leg quarters from the supermarket for an entrée, though we barely even made a dent in the chicken after all the bruschetta and pasta salad! For dessert, I bought some fresh mangoes, apricots and blueberries–so glad summer fruit is finally in season! I chopped up the mango and apricot and mixed all the fruit together with some sweetened lime juice to make a citrusy-sweet fruit salad. (Oops, was that a recipe?)

I still wanted something really dessert-y, so I baked cookies. But I cheated. I’m not much of a baker, and I don’t have a working mixer, so I was taking the easy route out on this one–I wanted a cookie mix. Well, who knew that it is shockingly hard to find a cookie (or brownie) mix without trans fats? (Be careful–the package can say 0g trans fats as long as it’s less than 1g. Check the ingredients list for partially hydrogenated oils, which equal trans fats.)

But lo and behold, in the refrigerated section, was my savior: Nestle Tollhouse Break and Bake cookies. Both the chocolate chip and the chocolate chunk are trans fat-free! Naturally, given those options, I went with the chocolate chunk. And so, we had a semi-homemade, chocolatey end to our meal.

And what’s a good picnic without some wine? So if you’re keeping track, yes, we drank wine out of sippy cups. Yes, I still own sippy cups. Note to self: buy disposable plastic cups.

A nice dry, Spanish rosé seemed like a good picnic wine. It was sufficient.

So, once everything was cooked and ready to go, we packed up our picnic and took it down to a park the next town over, overlooking the lake. Not gonna lie, it was pretty romantic. When I want to bring it, I can bring it.

But really, how can you beat a delicious (mostly) homemade dinner with views like this?

A lovely, relaxing conclusion to a lovely weekend. Then we went home and Kevin, my sister and I proceeded to finish off all two dozen cookies. Yeah, that happened.

Oh, and that recipe I promised:

As often happens with me, I didn’t measure, because I created a huge batch of this. It can obviously be adjusted to make a single portion or enough to serve a whole party. Use as much as you want to create as much as you want. Also, veggie-to-pasta ratios can be purely subjective. Do what you like.

-Cook pasta according to package directions in lightly salted water.
-While the pasta cooks, chop and prep all veggies and make pesto sauce.
-Once cooked, drain pasta but do not rinse. Let cool in colander or large bowl until room temperature.
-When the pasta is cooled, mix all vegetables, including the scallion, into the pasta
-Dice or tear the mozzarella into the pasta salad.
-Add enough pesto to generously coat all ingredients and give a good basil flavor. Mix well and season with salt and pepper.

This healthy alternative to traditional pasta salad may just become my go-to party dish! The chopping takes some time, but the actual assembly takes no time at all–a great, quick crowd-pleaser. Even Kevin, who doesn’t like pasta salad, couldn’t stop eating this!

Well, there you have it. Happy Memorial Day and Happy What I Ate Wednesday!

I know it’s usually “Meatless Mondays,” but without even trying, yesterday became a “Meatless Tuesday” for me. (“Meatless Monday” didn’t really work out, though.)

My day was also book-ended by Bolthouse Farms shakes–just a weird coincidence. I’m a huge fan of the Bolthouse line–their juice smoothies are almost exactly like Naked juice, but even better and much cheaper! And they have so much variety, it’s impossible to get stagnant. They also have a line of protein shakes, and I almost always keep at least one big bottle in my fridge for those on-the-go days when I don’t always have time to stop and eat. My current resident is the chocolate Protein Plus shake. It has even more protein than the regular protein shakes–64 grams per 32-ounce bottle. For those who are not mathematically inclined (like me), that’s 16 grams per 8-ounce serving! That’s a pretty killer protein dose. And the best part is, it tastes like Yoohoo and isn’t gritty, like some protein shakes.

It starts off my day well every now and then, and Tuesday was one of those days.

If the photo looks like it was taken in a rush in my car on the drive to work, that’s because it was.

Once I was settled in at work and an hour or two went by, I grabbed my “second breakfast,” which I was actually very excited about–a Fruit & Nuts with Yogurt KIND bar. I love KIND bars, but they’re usually fairly expensive in the stores by me, so I don’t but them very often. My mom stocks up when they’re on sale, but since she’s strictly gluten-free, I tend to keep my hands off her food, since I can eat anything and she has limited options. But she was out of town and it was calling to me, so I snagged it. I think it was the thrill of the chase that made my KIND bar even more appealing!

I was (inexplicably) so excited by my late-night find that I had to snap a photo of my KIND-y victory in the moment. Only I would get this excited over a fruit and nut bar.

Lunch, unfortunately does not come with pictures but DOES come with an interesting story! The Twisted Tree Cafe is a vegetarian-vegan eatery right down the street from my office (like, two doors down), and, naturally, I’m there often, as are my coworkers. Well, the Twisted Tree was being featured on a new food show with Nathan Lyon about all sorts of healthy restaurants around the country. But, they were filming on a Tuesday, when the Twisted Tree is usually closed, so they invited a bunch of their regulars (us included) to come in for lunch that day. So, I got a free lunch (yay!) but unfortunately, no pictures. There was just way too much going on.

My lunch wasn’t huge, but it was filling and tasty (as always). I had a PB&J smoothie with bananas, strawberries, peanuts, oats and hazelnut milk. I don’t really care for hazelnuts, but the flavor doesn’t come through at all; it really just tastes like peanut butter and jelly. I paired that with one of their specials that I love–Quinoa Salad. It’s quinoa mixed with black beans, green bell peppers, cilantro and sweet white onions. We all know my feelings on raw onion, and yet I love this salad anyway–very crisp and refreshing, and so filling from the quinoa! (For those who don’t know, I don’t like raw onion, particularly the aftertaste. Scott Conant and I would make good dining buddies [reference for all the “Chopped” fans out there.]).

That being said, I’m going to be on television sometime this summer, as I was interviewed during the spot. I also sounded like someone significantly less intelligent since my whole knowledge of the menu–and vocabulary–seemed to fly out the window as soon as the camera was on. Let’s just hope good editing doesn’t make me look like a total spaz. But Nathan was really cool and it was fun to see how much staging and pre-production really goes into these shows.

I’ll make it up to you, though–I’ll post a picture of today’s lunch from Twisted Tree. (Yup, only my second week of WIAW and I’m already breaking the rules. I am such a rebel.)

Today was a Lentil-Grain burger with sundried tomato spread and a side salad. It was my first time trying this one and it’s so. good. Not that I had doubts.

Anyway, moving along. Anyone who follows me on Twitter or Facebook knows Kevin made some very impressive orange-cranberry scones over the weekend (from scratch!) I brought the leftovers into work and they’ve been sitting in the office getting eaten ever since. And they made a lovely dessert yesterday. I promised I’d get you the recipe, and I will, once I sit down with him and get it.

After work I had to go to the eye doctor (no biggie, just getting my prescription checked out, as usual.) There’s this really great bagel place in the same strip mall as the office, and I was really looking forward to getting a bagel with walnut-raisin cream cheese before my appointment. This place makes the cream cheese with actual big chunks of walnut–it’s awesome! Unfortunately, when I got there at 5:30 I found out they close in the afternoons…sad. I was still pretty hungry, though, as it was about dinnertime, so I popped into the pizza place next door and had the strangest piece of Margherita pizza I’ve ever seen and a much-needed glass of water:

The slices were square, like a Sicilian pizza, but with a regular thin crust. And the cheese was just one big slice of mozzarella on top. I loved the amount of cheese, but the basil was a little lacking. But I was hungry, and this was fast, so it sufficed.

That actually tided me over for most of the evening, til I was craving a snack around 9. I couldn’t quite settle on one thing, so I ended up popping a couple of chocolate macaroons in my mouth followed by a bag of Popchips. Conventional? No, but it worked. I washed it all down with another Bolthouse Farms drink, though this one’s more of a juice. It’s part of their 50/50 line, which is half fruit juice and half vegetable juice. This one mixed berry juice with purple carrot juice. I bought it on a whim, but the berry flavor’s a little too intense and too sweet, so I cut it with a lot of seltzer. About one part juice to three parts seltzer. I know I’m not getting nearly as much nutrition that way, but it’s much more palatable. It has four servings of fruit and four servings of vegetables per 32-ounce bottle, though.

So, as you can see, it was a very Bolthouse-y and very veggie day for me! Also, VERY proud of myself for actually remembering to do this two weeks in a row!

Yesterday was a sick day for me, and I worked from home. So I expected to hit you with a double-whammy of recipe posts. But instead, I ended up sleeping most of the time I wasn’t working or feeling like I was dying, so, alas, no recipe posts. I’ll get them to you later this week. In the meantime, I’m jumping on the train of something I first saw on the Lean Green Bean blog: “What I Ate Wednesdays.” It’s just what it sounds like–every Wednesday, you chronicle what you ate for one day, one week, one trip, whatever. And today, I’m joining the WIAW club.

While I first saw this on the Lean Green Bean, it’s actually hosted by Jen over at Peas and Crayons, so a big thank you to her for hosting! (Check out lots of great WIAW posts here, too!) And so, on with my first What I Ate Wednesday. For my first post, I’m not just following any old day of eating–this is a WIAW Bridal Shower edition!

I attended a friend’s bridal shower on Sunday, and there was no lack of yummy homemade food and drinks. So, naturally, I had some of everything! But before I could get to that, I had to start of the day with a good breakfast. I really wanted cereal, but I was almost out of everything, so I ended up with a mixed bowl of Kashi Autumn Wheat, Kashi GoLean Crunch (Honey Almond) and some muesli from the Wegman’s bulk bins. I topped that all off with some chopped strawberries and finished up with a glass of Simply Orange-Mango juice. (Even better than regular orange juice!)Then, the bridal shower! We had lots of little snacks and hors d’oeuvres, like pita chips and hummus, bruschetta, chips and such. There was also a little bar set up with both regular and grown-up (ahem, spiked) lemonade, wine and fun Italian sodas. Then, for lunch, a great spread of finger sandwiches (ham and cheese and cucumber and cream cheese), curry chicken salad, coleslaw and macaroni salad and a big Italian salad with grape tomatoes and mozzarella.Of course, some seconds were had. (And a few cocktails!)

Then there were the desserts! A tray of assorted Italian cookies (my favorite!), along with homemade funfetti-dipped strawberries (yes, you heard that right–funfetti strawberries! They were dipped in white chocolate with the funfetti sprinkles in it), colorful cupcakes with hearts and fruit. Unfortunately, the desserts were snatched up too quickly for me to get a picture! Anyone who knows me knows how much I love chocolate-covered strawberries, so I had to try one of the funfetti variety (even though I’m not a big funfetti fan.) I also had a cupcake–chocolate, how could I not??–and WAY too many cookies. (Lesson learned: don’t sit down right next to the cookie tray. Ever.)

All that eating really did me in, and I ended up having half a cup of coffee for dinner. No joke. I was pretty much full for the rest of the night.

Well, there you have it–my first foray into WIAW! Hopefully I’ll remember to keep this up! And keep your eyes peeled for that double-whammy of recipes coming sometime this week!